Articles and News

By Jonathan Wilkins, EU Automation Today’s plant managers are faced with a dearth of automation technologies but it’s not always obvious what will work best. There is rarely, if ever, a one-size-fits-all approach. This article discusses what manufacturers should consider when choosing which type of robot to invest in.

RAP specializes in providing digitized solutions that support risk assessment, management of the permit to work (PtW) process, and governance of control of work (CoW) for all plant maintenance activities.

Professionals in any industry that work with or produce chemicals will learn how to identify, evaluate, and control chemical hazards to improve safety.

By Nigel Smith, TM Robotics Collaborative robots (cobots), machines that work harmoniously alongside humans, account for 3% of this market, but will reach 34% by 2025. This article explains what manufacturers need to understand before they jump on the cobot bandwagon, as this investment may not be as low-risk as it first appears.

The 20-page document, Securing Industrial Control Systems - Best Practices, covers the threat landscape and presents a holistic approach to defending it, including assessing risk, physical security, network security, workstation and server security, as well as the fundamentals of OSA.

The forty-eight page guide covers topics such as: international directives and standards, hazards vs. risks, risk assessment, estimating performance level, implementing safety functions, diagnostic coverage & common causes of failure (CCF)

By Roy Kok, Ocean Data Systems It used to be that security through obscurity was enough to protect automation systems from cyber-attacks. We know from the famed Stuxnet and its derivatives that automation systems are now a prime target.

By Geoffrey Peckham, Clarion Safety System With the rise in product liability litigation based on “failure to warn” over the past several decades, product safety labels have become a leading focal point in lawsuits faced by capital equipment manufacturers. Here are some key best practices that are shaping the current “state-of-the-art” for product safety label design.

Classes typically are a combination of classroom and hands-on training covering various aspects of process safety, including P&ID drawings, hazard and operability (HAZOP) studies, Safety Integrity Level (SIL), Safety Instrumented Systems (SIS), Layer of Protection Analysis (LOPA), and similar topics.

Software PDLP simplifies functional safety software project management. Three training courses are scheduled.

Shell will integrate Achilles Satellite into internal testing & risk assessment activities, and adopt Achilles Level 1 Certification into procurement requirements and factory acceptance tests.

After rounds of audits in all world areas, the TÜV organization has certified that all of the engineering work done by safety instrumented systems engineers from Emerson Process Management consistently meets the requirements of the IEC 61511 global standard for functional safety in the process industries. The certificates were presented to Phill Turner, SIS project operations manager of Emerson by Josef Neuman of TÜV on September 25th, 2005.

In today’s complex environment of rules, regulations and finance, the identification, evaluation, and reduction of safety risks is paramount. Changes to safety standards introduced the need for a systematic way of quantifying risk levels in order to determine the scope of the required safety systems needed to protect personnel and machines from possible injury or damage.